


Looking and its Consequences

by thesometimeswarrior



Series: Looking Toward [1]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: (but who is hurt and who is comforted?), Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Suicidal Thoughts, Prison, Uncle-Nephew Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-28
Updated: 2016-11-28
Packaged: 2018-09-02 22:29:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,051
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8685757
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thesometimeswarrior/pseuds/thesometimeswarrior
Summary: "He is not ashamed of his actions—for once, for the first time in three years, he is not ashamed of his actions—and he will see them through, consequences and all."Iroh does not look away. He is willing to pay for it. And Zuko has a hard time accepting that.





	

The cell is dingy, cold, and damp, purposefully so, Iroh surmises, to keep him from firebending. He has no idea if it’s effective. He’s sure it would be, knowing his brother, knowing his grandfather who built this prison. But he does not intend to test it. He is not ashamed of his actions—for _once_ , for the first time in three years, he is not ashamed of his actions—and he will see them through, consequences and all. 

(There is a part of him that is relieved, even. Part of him has wanted to do this himself since the worst day of his life, and has only stayed has hand because living without Lu Ten, living with all he has done, has been harder, has been his punishment. But now, it won’t be his own cowardice. Now it will be something inflicted on him. And he is not ashamed.)

Iroh is shaken from his thoughts when he hears voices coming from the hallway outside his cell, where he knows a guard is standing watch:

“I’m sorry, sir, but my orders…”

“You would _dare_ argue with your crown prince? With the heir apparent?” And Iroh is taken aback to hear how much the young voice resembles that of its holder’s father. And at once he is racked with (more) guilt. He will be gone, and then what will become of this young man, this honorable young man with a father who tried to...who would have…?

“But sir…” continues the voice of the guard.

“Do as I say! Unless you want to find yourself in a similar position as the man in that cell!”

Iroh hears a sigh, and then the door clicks open and the young man enters before the guard closes it behind him. His nephew scowls at him, eyebrows creased in apparent anger, through the bars of his cell. But he is alive, and his face—and the rest of his body—is clean and whole, free of burns. And this is more than Iroh could have hoped for had he stayed silent in his seat.

“Why?!” demands Zuko without preamble. “Why did you do this?!”

“Because your father was going to destroy you.”

“I didn’t ask for your help, Uncle!”

“I know. But I could not sit and watch Ozai—”

“You made me look _weak_. In front of the entire court!”

“No, Prince Zuko!” says Iroh springing to his feet and gripping the bars that stand between him and his nephew, because no matter what happens to him, Iroh, it is crucial that Zuko understand this. “No, you appeared strong! You—”

“I looked like a child who couldn’t defend himself!”

“No, you appeared an honorable son who refused to attack his father and his Fire Lord. It is Ozai who appeared weak. Ozai, who would burn his own son as that son prostrated himself on the floor before him. He is the weak one, Prince Zuko. Not you.”

“I deserved it…I spoke out of turn…I contradicted a general in my father’s war room…”

“No. You defended your people. There is nothing more honorable for a prince or for a man.” Iroh pauses. “And even if you _had_ spoken out of turn, even if you had been wrong, that is no justification for what Ozai would have done to you!”

Zuko gazes at Iroh's face silently for a moment, searchingly, longingly, trying, it appears to Iroh, to find the truth in his uncle’s words. Finally, he continues, his voice softer: “And you…you put yourself in between me and my father…You _attacked_ him to defend me…You must have known what your sentence was going to be.”

“I admit that it was not my chief concern at the time. But yes, I suppose I knew.”

“Y-Your execution is scheduled for tomorrow…You would…would…for me…”

“I do not regret it, Prince Zuko.”

This, more than anything, seems to shock Zuko. The young man creases his eyebrows this time in apparent confusion, disbelief. And _this,_ more than anything, shatters the muscle pounding in Iroh’s chest. That unconditional, parental love is such a foreign concept to his nephew that he cannot quite grasp its truth. Or else that he is thinking of Ursa, of whose disappearance Iroh has heard only rumors…

“You’re not dying for me, Uncle.”

“Prince Zuko…”

“No, you’re not! I commissioned a ship already. We’re leaving, tonight. Now. We can knock out the guard, and by the time he comes to, we’ll already be gone—”

“I…” He is shocked that Zuko, who has always displayed loyalty toward Ozai, would help a convict set to be executed for treason escape, even if the so-called "treason" was for Zuko's own benefit. He is even more shocked by the _we_ in Zuko's assertions. 

“This is what we’re doing, Uncle!”

“Why, Prince Zuko?" Iroh asks calmly. "Why throw your life away for me? I am an old man…” (He's not that old, not really, just in his fifties, but he _feels_ old, feels _so old_...) 

“I—” and then Zuko is quiet for a moment, as, it seems to Iroh, he tries to work out the answer to his question. “I don’t know! But you’re not...I won’t let you be…not for me…and I won’t, don’t think I can…my mother is already gone, and I’m not going to stay here without you too!”

And Iroh understands: this is not about his guilt or his cowardice. This is about being _needed_ , in more ways than one, understands that standing up to Ozai on this one issue was only the beginning. Zuko has always needed him—Iroh has known this since he stumbled back to the Fire Nation numb and devastated two years ago. And in light of what happened—what _almost_ happened—he sees that Zuko needs him now more than ever. 

“Very well,” he says finally.

Zuko visibly relaxes, even if he tries to hide it. “Good. I don’t know where we’ll go, but we’ll figure it out after…”

The General fingers the White Lotus tile in his pocket, thinks about what he knows of his brother’s plans. “I know where we will go. We have work to do, my nephew.”

And then he stands back as Zuko draws his broadswords to cut through the lock.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed! Comments make me so so happy!


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